Referee Tony Pesons checks on Demsi Manufoe, who stayed on the canvas for a few minutes after getting knocked out by Christian Araneta in the co-main event of “Who’s Next?” 4 Pro Boxing Series last Saturday at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
Tepora, Araneta overpower Indonesian opponents in lopsided wins in ‘Who’s Next?’ 4
Jhack “El Capitan” Tepora and Christian “The Bomb” Araneta made short work of their opponents in overpowering first-round knockout victories in the featured fights of last Saturday night’s “Who’s Next?” 4 Pro-Boxing Series at the Grand Pacific Ballroom of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
But the winning boxers’ big boss, Pio Paulo Castillo, president of Omega Pro Sports International (OPSI), was not in celebratory mood as the two visiting Indonesian fighters failed to live up to the hype and fought like overmatched opponents for the prized Omega Boxing Gym’s ring warriors.
“I’m disappointed that was all they had to show. I don’t need someone to tell me that, I know it was not what the fans expected,” said Castillo.
Yon Armed guaranteed a knockout victory, but it was he who kissed the canvas when Tepora tagged him with a left to the abdomen.
Referee Danrex Tapdasan counted out Armed, ending the fight at the 1:16 mark of the first round.
Tepora retained his WBO Oriental junior featherweight title while staying unbeaten in 20 fights now spiked by 15 knockout victories. Armed fell to 14W-8L-6KOs.
“I didn’t expect that the fight would end that quick. But I am happy with the win and I’ll just wait for my promoters as to what’s next for me,” said Tepora.
Araneta, on the other hand, bagged the vacant WBO Oriental junior flyweight belt by demolishing Demsi Manufoe.
Coming into the fight, Manufoe stressed losing was not an option, but all he did was ran.
Araneta caught Manufoe with a left uppercut, a shot that kept the Indonesian boxer on the canvas for a few minutes.
Referee Tony Pesons ended the fight at the 1:41 of the opening stanza.
Araneta improved to 14W-0L-12 KOs, while Manufoe dropped to 11W-7L, 8KOs.
With the two lopsided victories, Castillo assured that OPSI will come up with better cards in the future.
“We will learn from our mistakes. We rely on the matchmaker but we’ll be more careful next time in selecting boxers,” said Castillo.
“There will be more “Who’s Next?” cards and we will bring in quality opponents, boxers with heavy resume. Tapping Mexican boxers is what we are planning for the next cards,” added Castillo.
Though dismayed by the outcome of the card’s last two fights, Castillo was pleased with how the entire card turned out. It was the first time that OPSI put up a card at Waterfront in the series’ young history.
“The other fights were exciting. The crowd attendance was good. So overall, it was a successful event and we will definitely be holding more cards in Waterfront,” said Castillo.
Omega actually scored a clean sweep as its boxers in the undercards all emerged victorious.
Salatiel Amit defeated Renerio Arizala by unanimous decision (UD), Jerry Castroverde also scored a UD win over Ryan Quimbo, while Feljun Taneo escaped with his own UD win over Jeffrey Stella.
Tomjune Magubat scored first-round knockout over Marvin Tampus, Mark Vicelles finished off Fabio Marfa in five rounds, while Marjun Piencenaves dispatched Mark Anthony Ando via a UD victory.
Jessie Cris Rosales, a non-Omega fighter but promoted by OPSI, knocked out Jerry Nardo in the second round to stay unbeaten in 21 fights (9KOs).
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
